Sunday, March 22, 2009

如意园素食 Ru Yi Yuan Vegetarian Food @ Redhill Close ......... one of the best vegetarian fried noodles around

There was one day, just a couple of years back, I saw an aunty, definitely past her 50s, sitting on the floor of the void deck below the block where I live. Just out of kindness, I went to ask if she's OK and need any help. She told me that she's fine and she's just sitting down to rest. I found out much later that she's the owner of 如意园 Ru Yi Yuan. I'm glad that till now she looks fit as a fiddle and still at her stall whipping out good food for us.

Ru Yi Yuan is located inside a coffee shop just beside the Redhill Close market. Most of the time, during their opening hours, you'll see a daunting queue. Everyone's waiting for their turn for the vegetarian bee hoon. On the 初一十五 1st and 15th of every lunar month, also every weekends, the queue sometimes doubles, extending all the way out of the coffeeshop. It may take some time to reach the front of the queue, but the wait is definitely worth it!

The main draw of the vegetarian stall is their fried noodles (bee hoon, mee and kway teow). You'll be ask if you'll like gravy over the fried noodles. I've ordered so many times before but I've never gotten to reject their gravy. The gravy makes the fried noodles so much tastier. If you do a take away, they can make the extra effort to separate the noodles and the gravy. This is absolutely helpful when I'm doing a takeaway and then travelling all the way to my parent's place for breakfast. This way you don't get the soggy noodles upon arrival. You see below, my takeaway order of vegetarian bee hoon (S$2.00). Even my father-in-law, thinks that the portion they give for S$2 is really worth every penny. He was always complaining that food portions at food centers cannot feel his stomach. When I takeaway the fried noodle from Ru Yi Yuan for him, we hear nothing but all praise.

Apart from the vegetables, like cabbage and string beans, it always amazes me how different each mock vegetarian ingredient (e.g. mock duck, mock char siew) look and taste even though they're made mostly of the same fundamental ingredient, wheat gluten. The photo below shows a close up of the mock char siew (the reddish one) and the mock fried duck (the golden brown one). The 斋鸭 mock fried duck is my personal favourite to go with Ru Yi Yuan's fried bee hoon. It's crispy on the outside and slightly tangy inside ..........

I like it so much that I'll always buy a whole strip of 斋鸭 mock fried duck (S$1.50) to compliment my fried bee hoon. This is the strip that's not cut up ito smaller strips like what you see in the previous photo.

In addition to the food that I described above, Ru Yi Yuan will cook up the Mixed Vegetable Curry, Braised Mixed Vegetables and fried spring rolls during Sundays and 初一十五 1st and 15th of every lunar month.

At the stall front, you'll notice that they're not new to the media glitz. There are some newspaper cuttings with Aunty's facial close ups. There is also a poster of a popular TV food show endorsing the good food award for Ru Yi Yuan culinary skills.

Never mind all the media glitz that Ru Yi Yuan had received, just go join the queue and try their food. You'll then understand why they're popular.